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Can Donald Trump learn from history?

Furrukh Malik
  • The president's executive orders on travel and the wall suggest he is ignoring America's legacy.
  • Furrukh Malik is a physician practicing in Nashville for over a decade.

The last several weeks have witnessed widespread protests directed against the policies of our new president. Year 2017 witnessed a smooth transition of power, a hallmark of our democracy, but it left the nation polarized at the core of its being.

Among several controversial issues, the most significant in the early going was the so-called “Muslim ban.” It initially included cancellation of visas and green cards as well as stopping refugees from Syria.

Furrukh Malik

This executive order (later blocked by courts — twice) energized political participants to adhere closely to their visceral beliefs without realizing the conflict and ideological contrasts of present-day America and its founding narrative.

As I watched our new president lay a wreath on the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery earlier this year, the story of personal sacrifice for the ideals of our homeland could not escape me. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is attributed to the remains of a First World War soldier who died in a foreign land fighting for human rights in a far off country away from the comfort of his home and nation.

A story of human dignity and willingness of another human being to die for it. I have been to that corner of Arlington and the tomb is a sacred place. It reminds us about who we are, what we stand for and the ultimate price we are willing to pay for our deeply-held values.

The tomb reminds us of similar sacrifices by other soldiers in the Second World War, where persecution of one religious group led to the greatest of human carnages: the Holocaust.

That war was an ideological war. It was ideas of racial equity and religious tolerance versus a murderous and racist strain of humankind. Allies including the United States were at the forefront of this war.

As I watched the formal ceremony, I could not help but wonder if our new president is conscious of the place and the history of the solemn moment. The sacred ritual signifies our commitment to humanity, racial tolerance and dignity. That is why we commemorate Veterans Day to remember the ultimate sacrifice of our fellow countrymen.

The flurry of executive orders that led to the street turmoil suggests otherwise. The order to start a wall across the southern border and banning followers of Islam, separating families across the world, suggest that we have not learned anything from our history. We are willing to relive our heinous mistakes all over again.

How did we go from protectors and liberators of persecuted humanity to perpetrators and separators of it in less than a century? The enlightened world order based on human dignity, rule of law and protection of human rights just folded in a few weeks of the New Year.

What would be the message on Veterans Day across America? All that effort and human sacrifice amount to nothing? That our grandfathers fought the evils of their time only to see them reincarnated in their backyards? All the efforts to liberate a vast swath of Europe from villains and pariahs of Nazism amount to nothing?

The ideological battle still pervades our thoughts and present executive orders are reflection of this human weakness. The horrific human tragedies should be taught anew and revisited every chance we get so that the knowledge breaches the subsequent waves of human brutality and indifference.

Our nation with its history of lofty ideals, personal liberty and freedom for all should stay as a beacon of human achievement for all nations. I hope and pray that our new president was cognizant of the importance of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the ideals that it represents.

Furrukh Malik is a physician, practicing in Nashville for over a decade. He graduated from King Edward Medical University, Lahore, Pakistan.